


A Coat of Red

by saviorofauldrant



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Gen, just some thinking i did
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 11:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12747036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saviorofauldrant/pseuds/saviorofauldrant
Summary: Red hair was the honored symbol of the royal family, the symbol of the country of Kimlasca. Blood red like their flag, and blood red like their historyLuke defied that pride.





	A Coat of Red

For generations, the royal family of Kimlasca has taken pride in their crimson red hair; hair that some claimed resembled flames, while others drew the obvious comparisons with blood. Regardless of it’s metaphorical meaning, it was sort of a trophy to highest of the highest nobles in Baticul-- proof that at some point their bloodline mingled with the blood of kings and queens.  
Proud of the rare gene that set them apart from the rest, every noble with connections grew as much hair as they could in order to show it off, men and women alike. Those who had less red hair than others were quickly ridiculed and one by one every red-haired noble in Baticul grew as much of the famous attention-seeking hair as they could.  
That red, even to this era of Kimlasca, is the symbol of pride and nobility in Baticul.

Or, at least, that’s what Natalia was always telling Luke.  
He was never allowed to cut his hair (a trim here or there sometimes, to prevent split ends) as long hh could remember. Natalia told him that once children reach the age of ten, they are to start growing their hair out to show that they are developing into true nobles of Kimlasca. As Luke had technically turned ten shortly before his amnesia, he doesn’t remember that transition.  
Back then, Natalia had lamented and whined that she had not been born with Luke’s bright red hair, but instead her honey blonde. Despite both her parents being born with the trademark Kimlascan red, her hair came somewhere from her mother’s mother’s family. Or so she was told by her wet nurse, at least.  
As Natalia was born with amber hair, a rare gem in a sea of red, her father had, almost sorrowfully, told her that she was never to grow her hair down further than her chin. A mane of gold would almost imply that she’s proud of it-- proud of not being born red! Such a thing would be an insult to the pride of the royal family. Natalia dutifully agreed.  
Luke never understood it, the pride in hair or whatever. It’s just hair, right? I mean, Luke’s hair is pretty cool (Red like flames, he always insisted-- much cooler than his father and mother’s crimson.) but it was still just a bunch of strings that grew from his head. What he did know, was that the rest of Baticul seeme to love the stuff. Rather than risk the wrath of his father over something as silly as hair, Luke conceded to his fate.

_(It wasn’t until that day on the Tartarus, with red covering his hands and a lifeless corpse at his feet, that Luke saw his hair through the eyes of the rest of the world.  
Blood red.)_

Luke realized, staring at Asch in the mirror through eyes that were not his own, that the red of his own hair doesn't compare to crimson on Asch’s head. It was in that moment that Luke finally realized that, just as Luke had spent years growing his hair to it’s length, Asch had let his hair cover his entire back as well.  
Asch was known as “the Bloody,” but now Luke was perhaps more deserving of the title.  
Luke’s hands were stained red, red with lives of the countless people he had foolishly slain in Akzeriuth. Luke’s hair may have been lighter than Asch’s, but Luke had created a darker stain on the world.  
A week later, standing in the selenia garden, regrets and laments spinning around in his head, Luke had an idea. He asked Tear for a knife.  
Cutting through seven years worth of hair wasn’t easy, though Tear’s knife was thankfully sharp. She was a surprised though, and a little perturbed, and soon ran off the fetch a pair of scissors to fix the mess he had made on his head. As Tear ran to her room, Luke stood almost frozen in place, watching intently as the bright red rivers flowed down between the gaps of his fingers. The rivers ran out and emptied themselves into the sea of flowers, disappearing into white and green.  
While it was so easily lost among the garden, Luke couldn’t erase the red from his past just as simply. There were too many lives and too many regrets for that. But as he quietly let Tear trim off the odd bits of his hair in an attempt to fix the misshapen form Luke had created with his sawing, Luke decided on something.  
He would not be crimson. He would not be like his father and his uncle and even his mother who all honored the color-- the color their country is built on. He knows he’s no better than they are, probably he’s even worse, but he at least would never take pride in such a thing. He would not be labeled by it, defined by it, as Asch was.  
The blood on his hands will never dry and he knows the red will haunt him in his dreams for as long as he lives, but he would try to be better. He would be better than the red that consumes Asch, consumes his family, consumes his country.  
They left Yulia City, and Luke left behind the bloody symbol of his heritage, and his mistakes, lost beneath the cover of pure white flowers.  
It was taboo for a Kimlascan noble to cut their hair-- but to hell with that. Luke wasn’t a Fabre or a noble anyway.  
He was just a replica.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like 20 minutes and also I’m tired and it’s short so here you go.  
> I haven't written literally anything, personal or fandom, since I started college so I did this to force myself to make something.  
> Really I just wanted to kind of get across my headcanon about the red hair of Kimlasca and also my interpretation of why Luke cut his hair (past just a “symbol of change”).  
> Did I mention I’m tired?


End file.
